Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-09-15
CHARCOAL BURNING.
HOW THE BURNER MANAGED BUSl-
NESS IN THE OLD DAYS.

Waste of the Old Fashioned Plan.
Valuable Chemical Products of the
Modern Method.
A two story picnic barge was tied up beside
a North river pier near Harrison street. The
picnic business had not been good for its
owner, and he had turned to another line of
business by transporting lightweight mer-
chandise in it from the upper waters Of the
Hudson. A gang of men that formed two
long professions, travelling in opposite direc-
tions, were carrying rough bags full of char
coal from the barge and loading them on
trucks on the pier. A bright young man,
who could keep tally Of the bags, smoke
good cigar, and talk at the same time, stood
at the end of the gang plank and made a
mark in book every time man with bag
passed him. To a stranger who was curious
to know something about the charcoal bust
ness he said:
"This boat load of charcoal came from AL
bany. The coal was made up in the North
Woods somewhere, most likely out of wood
stolen off the state lands. There has been
great change in the charcoal business re-
Gently.
"In the old days the charcoal burner drove
a stake in the center of a piece of cleared
ground, or cleared off a piece of ground
around small sapling, and then proceeded
to stand cord wood up around it on end until
the pile was about forty feet in diameter and
two lengths high Then he piled sods and
earth all over the pit, leaving a small hole
here and there around the bottom, and one
small one in the top. When the wood was
well covered in he set it on fire and let it
burn till well ablaze and then closed up the
draughts around the pile. For two weeks
thereafter the charcoal burner, with another
man to keep watch and watch with him, sat
by the pile and smoked his pipe. Now and
then the fire would break through the cover
ing and he would have to cover up tie hole.
Sometimes he would have to make hole on
a side where the fire was not disposed to go.
In a few days black tar would begin
to ooze out through little drains made
for its escape round the bottom During
all the time the pile was burning a pic
turesque column of smoke rose out of the
chimney hole left in the top. When the tar
ceased to flow and the smoke to rise the char
coal burner knew that the pit was burned
out, and after allowing day or so for cool
ing he shoveled off the sods and eartn poured
be on fire, and was then ready to load the
product of his labor into a dusty, black
covered wagon, and with his mules to pull it,
drive to town and make himself hoarse shout
ing, 'Cha-a-a-r-r-coall Char-c-o-a-lr He got
about twenty-five bushels of coal out of
cord of wood, and twenty-fi cents out of
bushel of coal. Considering the value of the
wood and the time required to make and sell
the charcoal, the charcoal burner didn't get
rich very fast. In fact he was always
laborer dressed in blue jeans.
@But he found time to mediate, and that
after long years amounted to something. Out
of his meditations grew the revolution in the
business. Singular as it may seem, the most
valuable product of the charcoal pit was the
picturesque column of smoke that rose up and
was dissipated in the air above the pit while the
fire lasted. 1t was like throwing money into
the river to let that smoke blow away. Some
bright genius discovered that the smoke was
in good part alcohol, and that the alcohol for
mechanical purposes was just as good as grain
or fruit alcohol though not at all good to the
taste; in fact, would take the throat out of
Mulberry street tramp.
"The problem of getting the alcohol out
of the smoke was simple. Instead of burning
the wood in pit, the genius borrowed capi-
tai and built retorts just large enough to hold
two cords of wood each. They were made in
the shape of round steam boilers and mounted
over brick furnaces as boilers are The re-
torts were filed with hard wood, soft being of
no account, and fires were started in the
furnaces The wood was baked, and the
volatile elements of the wood were driven off
through pipes that were laid in big trough
of running water so as to form a condenser,
on the principle of a steam condenser.
Of course, the factory had to be located on a
stream of water that had good fall in order
to run the water into the condenser econom-
ically, although a steam engine would pump
the water through.
"The liquor that ran through the condenser
was simply condensed smoke. 1t was con-
Quoted to tank where it was mixed with
lime. The lime combined with certain acid
constituents of the smoke and left wood alco-
hol free The alcohol was drawn off and dis
titled once or twice to refine it, just as it
would be distilled in grain distillery. From
five to six gallons Of alcohol were obtained
from a cord of wood.
"Then the compound of lime and acids was
taken out of the vats and dried down in
shallow vats until it became the commercial
substance known as acetate of lime. About $50
pounds of the acetate were obtained from q
cord of wood. Here, then, were two very val
liable substances obtained from the smoke, and
although some additional labor and a valua-
BILE plant had been necessary to secure the
smoke, the extra expense was a trif1e COM
pared with the value of the new products
"Finally, when the tar had ceased to flow
from the retort, as it had formerly ceased to
flow from the pit, the retort was opened. In
stead of twenty-five bushels of coal to the
cord obtained in the pit, the charcoal burner
found sixty bushels to the cord in his retort.
So the charcoal burner hired men to do the
yelling on the village streets for him, paid of
the usurer who had loaned him the capital,
threw away his jean trousers and his pipe,
and, in more becoming garb, sat down to
smoke twenty-five cent cigars. The fact is
the new business was like any other new
thing; it was enormously profitable until the
rest of the world rushed into it and cut down
prices.
@Stfll no one need complain who owns
good acid factory. Acid factory is a name
adopted by those who do not like to stop and
explain to every inquirer that while they are
producing alcohol the stuff is not the sort that
inebriates anybody. The charcoal pays all
the expense of buying wood, paying wages,
dIlu uellNCIAu5 bAO PAONuSe9 Oii eAAS iAAoA nSot
and leaves a little margin for interest on the
investment besides. The alcohol and the ace
tate are clean profit. But that is not all;
there is very good product Of ashes The
fire in the furnaces is kept burning with
charcoal dust and broken charcoal that does
not sell well on the market, and with the tar
that oozes out of the retorts. There are sew
eral bushels of ashes for each cord of wood,
and the ashes are worth from ten to fifteen
cents a bushel at the factory, where they usu-
ally have ready sale to the farmers for fertil-
izers. They are also bleached and used 10
making potash. Thinking of such business
as this makes fellow wonder whether there
isn't lots of stuff now going to waste as the
smoke did that might be utilized and make III
all rich New York Sun.
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Strange Control of Horses.